John Maine was born in Bristol and studied sculpture at the West of England College of Art (1960-64) and the Royal College of Art (1964-67). Influences from journeys abroad (especially to Mexico) strongly affected his work. He was awarded the first fellowship at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. He subsequently worked in Carrara and attended the Hagi Symposium in Japan. Commissioned by the Government Art Collection, he spent a year in Australia carving a granite arch for the British High Commission, Canberra. He carved Arena in situ on the South Bank outside the National Theatre. This practice of creating large works in landscape was developed further in Portland, Dorset, where he made the Chiswell Earthworks, as part of the Common Ground ‘New Milestones’ Project.

He has continued to explore the possibilities of sculpture in relation to landscape and architecture. He made Strata, a 10M high granite monument, to commemorate the completion of the Ryugasaki New Town Development in Iberaki, Japan and spent several years working in a multi-disciplinary team for the Lewisham 2000 project. His Howden Sequence (2003) encircles Howden Minster in Yorkshire. In 2004 he completed an integrated project Seawall with engineers creating a substantial coastal protection landscape at Seaview on the Isle of Wight. His Entrance Works at Standard Life House, and the 8M high granite sculpture at the Royal Bank of Scotland, both in Edinburgh, are closely integrated with aspects of architecture. He worked on Place of Origin with Brad Goldberg and Glenn Onwin (1996-2006), a major sculpture/landscape project at the Kemnay granite quarries, Aberdeenshire. His war memorial at Islington Green and ‘Sea Strata' at Green Park tube station are more recent examples of his work. The Western-Super-Mare seafront is a recent example of how John Maine works with engineers and architects for large scale public landscape projects. A more intimate sculpture can be seen in the Saxon church at Bradford-on-Avon. He created the memorial stone for Stephen Hawking in Westminster Abbey, and Ascension in Hereford Cathedral. Currently preparing for the installation of Turning Point in Salisbury.

He has exhibited widely, including the Serpentine Gallery, Hayward Gallery, The British Museum, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Royal Academy. He has numerous works in Public Collections in the UK and internationally. John Maine was elected Royal Academician in 1995 and a Member of the Royal West of England Academy in 1997. He has been a Commissioner of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England from 1996 to 2010. He was a member of the Royal Mint design Committee for seven years from 2004. He is an adviser to of the Westminster Abbey Fabric Commission and member of the Fabric Advisory Committees of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor and Norwich Cathedral.  

John Maine lives and works in Wiltshire.